New music from Kim Cunio and Stephanie Dowrick (as part of Lamentations for a Soldier)

As part of their new programme, LAMENTATIONS FOR A SOLIDER, a Turkish-inspired performance from the prestigious Song Company, sacred music composer Dr Kim Cunio has written a highly innovative arrangement of part of Psalm 57 which has been recast as a libretto by Dr Stephanie Dowrick. Kim and Stephanie have been creating sacred music works together for more than ten years. (Details of earlier work from Universal Heart Music.) This will form part of their eventual Psalms Cycle.

The words for Psalm 57 follow. Please would you let us know if you wish to use them in any part, along with assurances of appropriate acknowledgment. Contact details for Stephanie Dowrick appear elsewhere on this website. Contact details for the performances from the Song Company also follow – along with details from their website of what promises to be a most stunning event, of which Kim and Stephanie’s Psalm arrangement is just one part.

The Song Company, directed and conducted by Roland Peelman, with Oguz Mülayim,ney (Turkey) and Ekrem Mülayim, composer/performance artist (Australia)

From the Song Company’s notes: “The haunting sound of the Turkish ﬂute or ‘ney’ (widely used also in Persian music; perhaps originating in Persia) forms the anchor of our 2015 Easter program. East and West collide through the juxtaposition of Robert White’s beautiful setting of the biblical Lamentations and traditional music from the Suﬁ tradition going back to the central ﬁgure of Rumi (1207-1273). The programme concludes with a short, sublime piece from Arvo Part.

According to Rumi or Jalãl ad-Dín Muhammad Balkhí, music is the language of God
and the ney represents a person who has reached perfection or ‘Insan-i Kamil’. As the ney suffers to produce a sound, a human also suffers till the breath of God vibrates in his or her soul. The dignity of human life is central to both Jeremiah’s Lamentations and Rumi’s thinking. At a time when we commemorate the tragic events at Gallipoli as well as the immense losses on the Western front 100 years ago, this message rings truer than ever, from both East and West.”

Please note that this programme does NOT include dervish dancing. It is in fact very still, harmonious and powerful in its contained passions.

Psalm 57 (Re-transcribed by Dr Stephanie Dowrick: set to music by Dr Kim Cunio)Please note that this has been written as a libretto, enhancing an oral tradition literally thousands of years old and bringing a text alive, drenched in yearning and new meaning.

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Interfaith in Sydney

Reverend Dr Stephanie Dowrick and Dr Kim Cunio no longer lead monthly services in Sydney (these ended September 2017). However, they will be offering from 2018 onwards special events, spiritual study and sacred music concerts. Details will be available on this page or via the Universal Heart Network (above) or Stephanie’s public Facebook page.